I Love Him, He Loves Me Not
by katastrophe15
Summary: Rika, Keiko, and Suguha, and their unrequited love for Kazuto. Based only on the anime.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: In Japan, it is socially acceptable and legal to marry one's first degree cousin. I had to look that up because Suguha's crush on Kazuto – and the fact that he wasn't horrified by it – was just this side of taboo for me to be honest. Turns out it was just my cultural bias speaking. Also, I think Kazuto would have told his and Asuna's family (her father, anyway) that they were married in-game. Sugou knew Kazuto and Asuna lived together in-game, why shouldn't their own families? Lastly, I don't think Asuna is averse to PDA per se. The school they attend may just have policies that prohibit PDA between 2 people in a romantic relationship on its premises (Hence, Rika's remark in the animé about their behavior being 'inexcusable' in a school. Yes, there are schools like that. I attended one. It didn't stop us; it just made us more discreet).

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Shinozaki Rika carefully blowdried her damp dark brown hair in sections until she was satisfied the layers of her chin-length bob were as smooth as they could be. After flattening the stubborn strands at the crown with shine serum and clipping her long bangs away from her face, she studied her reflection critically.

"Ok, my hair is fixed but not so fixed it looks obvious or like I'm trying too hard." She then curled her lashes – cursing under her breath when she accidentally pinched her left upper eyelid – and coated them with clear mascara. After swiping a glittery mauve shade named "Radiant" on her lips and blotting them on a tissue, she carefully checked the school uniform she'd taken out of her closet for torn seams, missing buttons, and jammed zippers then put it on.

Normally, she just showered, put on the first uniform she found, haphazardly dried her hair before clipping it back, and ran out the door with her school bag… but not today.

Today was the first day of her campaign to make Kirigaya Kazuto see her as girlfriend material.

* * *

Rika took the bus to school as she usually did but kept the window closed, so the wind wouldn't muss up her hair. When she got down at the bus stop, she saw a familiar couple holding hands and talking animatedly while they walked towards the school gate.

A boulder lodged in her throat when Asuna give Kazuto a quick peck on his cheek then let go of his hand. She stood transfixed as her two friends walked side-by-side the rest of the way towards the school building, their hands brushing against each other as if by accident, until a familiar voice called out, rousing her from her trancelike state.

Rika took a deep breath then turned towards the voice… and nearly fell over when she saw that Ayano Keiko too had taken extra care with her appearance today. Not that the younger girl didn't always look cute to begin with – this was the SAO player who had received in-game marriage proposals from male characters of all ages even when she had only been 13 years old – but today new red ribbons adorned her pigtails and small hoop earrings from which dangled tiny stones that matched the color of her amber eyes winked from her earlobes.

"It looks like I'm not the only one who remembered that today is the end of the month-long truce," Keiko smirked as she looked at Rika from head to toe.

Rika quickly clapped a hand over Keiko's mouth then dragged her with her to the school building. "Don't say it so loudly," she hissed. "I don't want the whole school to know I'm going after Kirito. I'd like to have some pride left if my plans don't work out."

"And how will you let him know then? You think anything subtle can pry him away from Asuna-san?"

"Well… He already knows I have feelings for him," Rika muttered.

Keiko stopped in her tracks and stared at her in astonishment. "How? And why haven't you told me until now?"

Before Rika could stammer out a reply, the school bell rang out across the school yard, interrupting the 2 girls

"We're continuing this conversation after school," Keiko said in a tone that brooked no argument. "And for goodness' sake, smile, Rika-san," she admonished her senpai when she saw the consternation on the older girl's face. "Not everyone will notice the lip gloss, curled lashes, and blowdried hair, you know. But everyone _will_ notice a friendly smile."

* * *

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The wind chimes hanging near the glass door of the ice cream parlor merrily announced Kirigaya Suguha's entrance. She rolled her right shoulder then her left. Kendo practice had been more strenuous than usual today, so she'd finally dropped by to try the new matcha green tea parfait that many of her schoolmates were raving about. She had just placed her order and sat down in one of the booths when the wind chimes heralded the arrival of two girls around her age.

Suguha's eyes rounded when she recognized Rika and Keiko. Should she greet them, she wondered. When they slid into the booth behind hers without acknowledging her, she couldn't help but feel a little hurt in spite of her better judgment.

Of course, they didn't recognize me, she rationalized. There was really no reason they should. She had hung back during the one offline meeting she'd gone to at the Dicey Café. And when Rika and Keiko partied with her, her older brother, and his girlfriend on ALO, they saw her as Leafa. Her avatar's leaf green eyes and long blonde hair could not be more different from the dark green eyes and chin-length jet black hair she had in real life.

Calmer now, she opened the messaging app and idly scrolled through its inbox while she waited for her order… and almost dropped her smartphone when the occupants of the booth behind her began talking about her older brother Kazuto and his girlfriend Asuna. She hastily ducked her head and pretended to be busy fiddling with her smartphone, loosely placing the earphones plugged into it in her ears for good measure.

"You actually told Kazuto-san you loved him? Wow," Keiko said in awe. "I never got around to that when we went to Floria to pick the Pneuma Flower for Pina… but I think he could tell I was starting to crush on him because he told me, 'Next time, let's meet in the real world. When we do, it'll be as friends just like now.' Talk about getting shot down before take-off."

Suguha couldn't help but make a moue that mirrored Keiko's, thankful that she wasn't facing the other girl.

"When I first told Kirito, he didn't hear me – we _were_ falling through the air at the time – but I did get to hug him."

"Really?" Keiko clasped her hands in front of her heart in glee.

"He didn't hug me back," Rika answered the unspoken question in Keiko's – and Suguha's – eyes. "I think he thought I was just happy and relieved we'd escaped the crystal dragon. The second time I confessed was after I'd made his white sword, the Dark Repulsor, for him. But he just thanked me afterwards." Rika sighed dolefully. "And he looked so apologetic about it, too."

"Was Asuna-san there?" Keiko asked after thanking the server who had brought her parfait.

"No. Kirito and I were alone in my workshop when I confessed. The look on his face, Silica-chan! He was blushing, yes, but he didn't hold his hand out to me when I reached for his… and he looked so relieved when Asuna burst in."

"Hmm, so Kazuto-san and Asuna-san were already a couple when you met him?"

"I don't think they were official yet… but they already liked each other. And I'd figured out from their conversation that he was the guy Asuna would meet up with whenever she took time off from clearing with her guild."

"Hmm, if that's the case… why are we trying for Kazuto-san now," the middle schooler said pensively. "He already knows we like him, _and_ he's already politely rebuffed us. I'm starting to rethink this scheme of ours."

"Because, Silica-chan, in-game is different from real life. I may have rooted for Asuna before, but now it's, 'May the best woman win.'"

After hearing Rika's declaration of war, Suguha set aside her now empty glass and discreetly left. She'd found out more than she wanted to today. The much-vaunted matcha green tea parfait was as cool and refreshing as her classmates said it would be, and the 2 girls she often went on quests with on ALO apparently did so in a bid for her older brother's attention.

A blush crept up her neck and face when she recalled how Keiko and Rika rhapsodized about Kazuto. Not that she blamed them for having crushes on him. Her older brother – first degree cousin, really – was cute, smart, surprisingly good at kendo, and funny as long as one wasn't the butt of his jokes. He also had a good heart. Although her older brother was a loner who preferred the company of his computers and his video games, when he did interact with others, his innate kindness shone through.

That, above all else in her opinion, was what had drawn Asuna to him.

Asuna was a female player Kazuto had met, fallen in love with, and – much to her and her parents' shock – married in Sword Art Online, the VMMORPG that had trapped him in a coma for 2 years. She was the first person he had looked for upon regaining consciousness. Suguha wasn't sure how her older brother had learned Asuna's name and whereabouts in real life or that she was still in a coma, but once he was strong enough, he visited her at Tokorozawashi General Hospital every day. Suguha accompanied Kazuto one afternoon out of curiosity for the girl who so completely captivated the boy she was starting to fall for. The love in Kazuto's eyes as he held the beautiful girl's hand while she lay unconscious and unresponsive in her hospital bed was a sight to behold. Suguha understood at that moment that her budding feelings would never be reciprocated.

So she had decided to focus her affection on a player she'd met on Alfheim Online, a VMMORPG she'd first started playing in an attempt to understand her older brother but had eventually become hooked on. The Spriggan Kirito reminded her of her older brother and his single-mindedness in reaching the top of Yggdrasil was… intriguing to say the least. Much to her dismay, Kirito had turned out to be **_Kiri_**_gaya Kazu**to**_ in real life, and his determination to accomplish ALO's Grand Quest stemmed from his desire to rescue Asuna, who was still in a coma because she was trapped at the top of Yggdrasil.

Good thing she knew when to concede defeat, she mused with a rueful smile, thinking of the cold, snowy January night her older brother had finally succeeded in returning Asuna to the real world. Otherwise she'd be in the same boat Rika and Keiko were in. It was funny and rather disconcerting to find out that more girls than she had previously thought were susceptible to Kirigaya Kazuto's quirky charm.

Later, Suguha opened the front door of her home and breathed in the scent of basil, tomatoes, and garlic. The heavenly aroma that wafted over to her from the kitchen meant only one thing: Asuna was cooking one of her sumptuous dinners.

She had really tried to dislike the older girl who had stolen her first love from her.

But found that she could not.

Asuna's emergence from her coma banished the profound sadness that had surrounded her older brother since he had come out of his. To be honest, Kazuto also smiled and laughed more than she could remember he ever had. Before, her older brother had barely acknowledged her and their parents and left his room only when absolutely necessary. Now, he shared meals with them, asked about their day, and told them about his as well as went on dates with Asuna _and_ occasionally met up with their friends at the Dicey Café. He'd even taken up kendo again. She and her mother sometimes shook their heads in amazement at his transformation.

Then there was Asuna herself. Her older brother's girlfriend was NOT the entitled, condescending bimbo Suguha had feared she was. And she demonstrated a grit that Suguha had to grudgingly admire during the grueling physical and occupational therapy exercises that Kazuto sometimes helped her with.

And it wasn't just her older brother who was enthralled with her. Her parents liked Asuna so much – and the positive behavioral changes she had brought about in their adoptive son – that they had opened their home to her when they'd learned she was usually home alone whenever her parents were away on a business trip. Delighted and touched with Kirigaya Minetaka and Midori's graciousness, Asuna had then offered to cook dinner whenever she was over.

The reservations Suguha still had about her older brother's girlfriend – who was apparently an aspiring chef – had their foundations shaken at her first sip of Asuna's minestrone.

"Tadaima!" she called out, sorry now she'd eaten the matcha green tea parfait by herself.

"Okairi nasai, Sugu-chan!" Asuna replied. "Dinner will be ready soon. I sent Kirito-kun out to buy baguettes so I can make crostini to go with the spaghetti marinara. He should be back in a few minutes."

Suguha found herself grinning. It never failed to amuse her how her older brother's girlfriend ordered him around… or how quickly he leaped to do her bidding.

After dinner, as she helped Kazuto clean up and Asuna chatted with her parents in the living room, her thoughts drifted once more to the conversation she'd overheard in the ice cream parlor.

"Oi, Sugu, you're unusually quiet," Kazuto remarked as he dried the dishes she'd washed. "Did anything interesting happen to you at school or kendo practice today?"

"Nothing much, Onii-chan," she replied. There was no way she was telling him that Keiko and Rika were still carrying torches for him. "I'm just very, very full. I had a parfait at the ice cream parlor before I went home."

"Aha. So that's why you turned down the toffee loaf slice à la mode," Kazuto said with a smirk. He then flicked the dishtowel with an audible snap at her behind, making her gasp in surprise and nearly drop the plate in her hands. "Careful, or this will get bigger than it already is."

After chasing Kazuto out of the kitchen, around the dining table, and into the living room – to the bewilderment of its occupants – where she finally beaned him with the dripping dishwashing brush, she sat on the couch with a huff and faced the TV. Feigning interest in the sitcom it was tuned to, she covertly observed the couple seated on the other end of the couch. Suguha bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling as Asuna alternately chided and comforted Kazuto.

She wondered if Keiko and Rika had ever looked closely at Asuna's eyes whenever she and her boyfriend were together. The love shining clearly in their hazel depths as she brushed Kazuto's bangs from his forehead and gently brushed a kiss on the knot growing there would surely have put a stop to their machinations if they had.

She knew that it was what finally had quelled the resentment in her heart.

* * *

**To be continued...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"It's almost summer break, and he still hasn't noticed. I'm so tired of blowdrying my hair and wearing make-up."

"I did say that we should rethink this scheme of ours."

Rika and Keiko were back in the rearmost booth of the ice cream parlor, this time sharing a banana split since both girls wanted to wear two-piece swimsuits at the class summer outing.

"I didn't agree with you because you meant 'give up' when you said 'rethink'," Rika said dejectedly as she ate a spoonful of strawberry ice cream.

Keiko sighed then sliced the banana on her side of the dish into bite-sized pieces with her spoon. "True. But has our persistence gotten us anywhere? Were you not with me when we saw them kiss goodnight on her front porch?"

The kiss the two girls had witnessed was a toe-curling, familiar one between lovers. Kazuto and Asuna had their lips and bodies pressed together with his arms wrapped around her waist while hers encircled his neck. It was a far cry from the quick kisses on the cheek they had previously seen the couple exchange.

"When did it come to that? When?" Rika demanded, pounding a fist clenched around her dessert spoon on the table and causing the server at the counter to look over curiously in their direction. She cursed under her breath when she saw that her outburst had sent the large drop of chocolate syrup on her spoon airborne, and it had landed on a rather embarrassing spot on her white blouse.

"I don't think 'when' is important. The fact that it has should be reason enough for us to back off."

"And I thought you were with me on this," Rika grumbled bitterly. "You were on _her_ side all this time. Tell me, were you keeping tabs on me for her? Were the two of you laughing at me behind my back?"

Keiko just stared at her for 2 seconds. "Be reasonable, Rika-san," the middle schooler rebuked her senpai, the irony of their conversation not lost on her. "I'm not taking sides. And if I were, why would I take hers over yours? I only got to know Asuna-san through you and Kazuto-san."

"I… I don't know," Rika said, somewhat mollified. "Maybe she promised to set you up with someone if you sabotaged my attempts to…" She groped for words that weren't quite so shameful. "My attempts to…"

"Go on," Keiko prompted her, an eyebrow raised in wry amusement. "You were saying?"

"Steal Kirito from her…" Rika finally finished weakly before slumping onto the table. "Would you listen to me? I am so pathetic. And I'm supposed to be Asuna's friend!" she wailed before burying her head in her arms.

Keiko rose from her seat and slid in next to an openly sobbing Rika. She rubbed the older girl's back and murmured, "There, there" and until her sobs no longer shook her shoulders.

Several minutes passed before Rika lifted tear-filled eyes to Keiko's. "Why didn't you stop me?"

"I tried to. But there was no talking you out of it; your obsession had to run its course."

Rika sniffled and knuckled away a tear that had spilled onto her cheek. "You sound as if you never entertained hopes Kirito would return your feelings."

"I did. I'd be lying if I said I didn't. But those hopes evaporated when the guy not only 'friend zoned' me, he 'sibling zoned' me."

"B-but the new ribbons? And earrings? And all the times you went with me to spy on them?"

"I have new ribbons and I wear earrings because it pleases _me_ to do so… and I accompanied you on your reconnaissance missions because someone had to be _your_ lookout."

"Silica-chan…"

On impulse, the middle schooler embraced her senpai. Which predictably triggered a new bout of weeping.

"Are you all right now?" Keiko asked when Rika finally pulled away.

"Not really. My heart still feels like there's a hole in it… but I've felt this way before and survived," Rika replied in between hiccups.

"I don't really know what to say… except that maybe you could think about why you backed off the first time? Yes, it was in-game, but other than that, the circumstances _are_ pretty similar."

Silica-chan's right, Rika thought as she trudged home pondering on the younger girl's words. What had she been thinking? Baka, baka, baka! she berated herself furiously.

When Rika had first found out a special school for middle and high school students who had been trapped in SAO would be opened, she'd been so thrilled. True, she didn't know anything about the player Kirito's life in the real world, but chances were he was around her age and now they'd be schoolmates!

Her jaw could've been picked up off the ground when she'd seen _him_ leaning on the pillar by the school gate on the first day of classes. She'd rushed over to him and had been over the moon when he'd recognized her as Lizbeth the blacksmith and smiled. As they exchanged their real names and updated each other on their lives after SAO, Rika couldn't help but hope that Kirigaya Kazuto had been waiting for _her_.

That bubble was soon burst though when he straightened up from the pillar and approached the curb as a black limousine slowed to a stop in front of them. A uniformed chauffer stepped out and opened a rear door, revealing a beautiful girl with hazel eyes and long, straight, chestnut hair, the upper part of which was arranged into braids that encircled the back of her head.

Asuna.

The likelihood that her best friend in SAO and the girl she had given up on Kirito for would also be her schoolmate had never entered her mind.

When she saw how solicitously Kazuto helped Asuna out of the car – supporting her with an arm around her shoulders then making sure she was steady on her feet and had a firm grip on her cane before letting go – she realized that here was another scenario that hadn't been part of her daydreams.

The possibility the romance between the SAO players Kirito and Asuna would transcend Aincrad and manifest in the real world.

Reeling from a heart that was broken anew, Rika had barely managed a perfunctory greeting in response to Asuna's warm one before rushing off on the pretext of looking up her section. She'd kept a close watch on the couple since then. Not to avoid all encounters with the lovebirds – she _was_ friends with both of them after all – just the random ones that didn't allow her to steel herself.

"Liz? Are you okay?"

Just like this one, Rika thought, torn between misery and horror, when she looked up and saw that the 2 people she _really_ didn't want to see right now were standing before her and looking at her inquisitively. Well, Asuna was; Kazuto kept his gaze averted. Stupid chocolate syrup.

"Are you all right, Liz?" Asuna repeated. Then she blushed and stammered when Kazuto gently nudged her. "I-I'm sorry, Rika. A-anyway, you look like you've been crying… Is there anything we can do to help?"

Break up so she could have a chance with him, she longed to say. "I got chocolate syrup on my blouse, and I don't know how to fix it," she mumbled instead.

"Oh! I do. Know how to fix it, I mean. Do you live nearby? I can help you with that if you want? Kirito-kun won't mind postponing our trip to the ice cream parlor for a bit. Oops, I mean, Kazuto-kun," she amended and cheekily stuck her tongue out at her boyfriend when he grinned at her.

* * *

**To be continued...**


End file.
